The New Indian Express ·
Himalayan water bomb ticking over Nepal-China ‘Tatopani’ border
The road to Nepal’s northern gateway with China is less a highway than a precarious line etched into the mountainside.
On one side, the slope rises almost vertically, scarred by fresh landslides and piles of loose rock. On the other, the Bhote Koshi plunges through a deep gorge. The Araniko Highway narrows repeatedly into rough tracks where trucks crawl over freshly dumped stones, while excavators work below unstable slopes. A single mistake, another spell of intense rain or a fresh slope failure can sever the only road linking this part of Nepal to China.
This is the landscape through which The New Indian Express travelled towards Tatopani-Liping, one of Nepal’s principal China trade gateways, where fear has acquired a new dimension after the catastrophic rock-ice avalanche and flood that devastated the Rasuwagadhi corridor on August 26. The road itself is already warning enough. Sections have repeatedly subsided into the Bhote Koshi, while landslides at several points have cut traffic for days and weeks. In August, China temporarily closed the Tatopani crossing because of landslide risks on the Nepali side.